Cancellations of Tigerair flights have once again left travellers flying to Bali stranded, on the very day normal flight services were expected to resume.

Six flights from Australia to Bali were cancelled last night with hours to spare. A press release posted to the company's website with a timestamp of 11.40pm suggests the news broke late last night.

Ticketholders "will be offered full refunds", the statement said, but will still have to make alternative travel plans to Bali – likely on the day they hoped to fly out of the country.

The situation for passengers flying from Bali to Australia is a little different. People flying to Australia had flights arranged with different airlines.

A posting on Tigerair's website suggested customers calling the helpline had to experience "wait times...longer than usual" due to "a higher volume of calls than normal".

Tigerair initially projected its flight timetable would be restored today, 3 February, after the Indonesian government tightened administrative requirements in early January.

It remains unknown if normal flight services will resume from tomorrow onwards.

The flight cancellations were "due to issues regarding final procedural approvals from Indonesian authorities", the company said in its statement.

"Tigerair will provide an update on its flights to and from Bali from Saturday 4 February onwards as soon as possible."

Update 3 February 1.30pm: Tigerair has cancelled all flights to Bali permanently.

In a statement to the media, the airline wrote:

Overnight, Tigerair Australia has been informed that Indonesian authorities will not be providing Tigerair with the final approval needed to operate to and from Bali from today, Friday 3 February 2017.

The Indonesian authorities have informed Tigerair that they require an alternative regulatory solution for Tigerair’s operations to Bali. This solution would take at least six months to implement and would compromise the airline’s ability to offer low-cost airfares to travellers to Bali.

As a result of this development, Tigerair Australia has made the difficult decision to withdraw from flying between Australia and Bali permanently, effective today Friday 3 February 2017.

We sincerely apologise to customers for the inconvenience caused by this situation and we will continue to work around the clock to support customers during this time.